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Will Treaty
Will Treaty (his last name, given by Halt, later coming from his role in the creation of the Skandian Treaty) is the main protagonist of the series (as well as the titular character, meaning that he was the Ranger's Apprentice). Will was a ranger apprentice throughout the books The Ruins of Gorlan, The Burning Bridge, The Icebound Land, Oakleaf Bearers and Erak's Ransom. Will is described as being short but swift, He has brown hair and eyes the same colour and a quick, cheeky grin. He also has an excellent head for heights. Will is a ward (another name for an orphan) in Castle Redmont . Each year, Wards turning fifteen could apply to be apprenticed to the various craftmasters of Castle Redmont. Wards that weren't chosen normally ended up working in fields. Though he wishes to become a knight, he is chosen by Halt to become a Ranger's Apprentice, because of his size. Rangers are the intelligence/espionage force of the nation; they specialize in unseen movement and the use of weaponry such as the saxe knife, throwing knive and longbows. After being an apprentice for a few days, Halt takes Will to see his horse Tug, With Tug, Will trains in the skills needed to pass his assessment at the annual Ranger gathering. However, the meeting is cancelled with the news that Morgarath is rising again. Later, Will finishes off the second Kalkara after Sir Rodney and Baron Arald finish off the first one. He is known to like pickles. 'Ranger History' In the first book, The Ruins of Gorlan, Will becomes an apprentice ranger and practices various skills, such as archery, unseen movement, and knife throwing. During his early life as an apprentice, Will participated in a boar hunt. There, he and Horace are almost killed when a second boar charges them after the first is killed, taking everyone by surprise. Seeing Horace in danger, Will distracts the boar and entices it away from the battleschool trainee. Halt quickly shoots the boar with an arrow, killing it instantly. From then on, both Horace and Will become firm friends, as earlier on they were antagonistic to one antoher. Later on, after attending his first ranger gathering, he helped hunt the Kalkara by leading Arald and Rodney to Gorlan, and killing the last of the Kalkara with a fire arrow. At the end of the book, Baron Arald offers Will the opportunity to become a knight as he wished to be at the beginning of the book but Will chooses instead to continue on his path as a Ranger, much to Halt's pleasure who later gives him his bronze oakleaf, an insignia of his apprenticeship. Halt then tells Will about his father for the first time. Will is initially disapointed that his father wasn't a knight but sergeant but he soon realizes that he is still proud of his father for being heroic. 'The Burning Bridge' In the second book, The Burning Bridge, a war is approaching and Will, Gilan, and Horace , Will's friend from Battleschool, are sent to Celtica to ask for reinforcements. However, when they arrive they realize Wargals, bear and dog-like like monsters working for Morgarath, have slaughtered a royal escort of the princess of Araluen and only one girl survived, a maid named Evanlyn. Gilan moves on ahead of Will and Horace to report to the King. Meanwhile, the three ride about a day behind Gilan and encounter Wargals. They follow them to the Fissure; a deep gorge thought to be impassable. The Celtica miners were all captured to complete a bridge across the Fissure. Such a bridge could assault the King's army straight from behind and destroy the King's forces. Will, Horace and Evanlyn burn the bridge, but Evanlyn and Will are captured in the process by Skandians. Horace rides back with the horses and meets up with Gilan and a group of infantry trying to rescue Evanlyn, who is in truth, Princess Cassandra. Horace tells Gilan what happened and they ride back to the main army. The war goes well with the bridge destroyed and Horace kills Morgarath in single combat. 'Life in Skandia' Will and Evanlyn are taken as slaves in Skandia, a neighboring country of Araluen. On the way to Skandia the ship is caught in a series of violent storms so the ship has to make anchor at a small island called Skorghijl there Evanlyn reveals her true identity as Princess Royal of Araluen after becoming exasperated with Will as he tries to come up with many escape ideas. She says that her father: King Duncan will pay a ransom, Will, however knows that he will have to find his own way home. Will is forced to work outside in the bitter cold. He quickly becomes addicted to warmweed, a drug that gives a person warmth, but destroys their mind. This weakens him so he is no longer able to use his ranger skills to escape if he recovers from the addiction. The Skandian who captured Will and Evanlyn, Erak, sets up a plot to rid Will of his addiction and escape with Evanlyn. The two succeed in escaping, and take refuge in a small log cabin for winter. While there, Will overcomes his addiction. To rescue Will and Evanlyn, Horace and Halt also set off for Skandia. While living in the log cabin Evanlyn is captured by the Temujai, a fierce, nomadic tribe of horse warriors from the east. Will tries to rescue her, but almost fails until Horace and Halt come along. Halt captures one Temujai alive and realizes the Temujai are back to try and take over the world again. A few years ago they almost succeeded until a plate of out of season clams and politics got in the way. Halt agrees to help Skandia drive off the Temujai since Halt feels if the Temujai defeat the Skandians, they will attack Araluen next. The Skandians win the battle, but the Oberjarl (leader of Skandians) dies and Erak (to his great surprise) is chosen as the new Oberjarl. After returning home Horace is knighted and Will is offered the position as the lieutenant of the Royal Scouts, the country's archery trainers. Will does not accept the offer knowing that the Ranger life is his true calling. Will is unaware that Evanlyn was behind this because she sort of has a crush on him. Erak's Ransom A few years later, Will is in his final year as an apprentice Ranger. Erak the Oberjarl has been captured by the Arridi, sand nomads. Princess Cassandra goes along with Will, Gilan, Halt, and Svengal (Erak's second in command) and the crew of the Oberjarls former ship Wolfwind who stay in the harbor where they landed (the Arridi didn't want 30 Skandians roaming in their "backyard") to pay the ransom. However, violent sandstorms, warring tribes, losing friends, and danger everywhere may keep them from reaching Erak in time to secure his release. At the end, Will is given his Silver Oakleaf symbolizing him a full fledged Ranger. 'First mission' Will takes on his first mission as a full Ranger throughout the books of The Sorcerer in the North and The Siege of Macindaw. The Sorcerer in the North As a full Ranger at last, Will is assigned to a fief of his own at. At his own fief, he finds the discipline lacking. Then one day, a group of Skanadians try and raid the village. Will manages to prevent a battle by giving the Skandians supplies in exchange for not attacking the village. Soon he is sent north to Macindaw in order to investigate claims of sorcery. The lord of the castle, Lord Syron, was poisoned by an unknown substance. Many believe a sorcerer to be the cause of the illness since Syron's ancestor was also once poisoned by a sorcerer. Alyss is sent up to help Will, but is captured by the rogue knight Keren, also responsible for poisoning Syron. Will manages to escape and enlists the help of the sorcerer who is in fact a gifted healer called Malcolm. Horace is also sent up north by Halt when Will does not send a message in a long time. The Siege of Macindaw To rescue the castle and Alyss, Horace and Will devise a plan. They receive the help of the Skandians that Will gave supplies to and use them to assault the castle. Horace explains that to successfully capture a castle, a four to one ratio is needed. With only about 25 Skandians and 30 soldiers in the castle this would seem impossible. However, Malcolm sets up some conjurations that draw the attention of the soldiers in the castle to one side, allowing Will and Horace to enter the castle on the opposite side. Soon the Skandians also enter the castle. Will quickly climbs up to the keep where Alyss is being held. However, Alyss was hypnotized into believing Will is the enemy. Will tells Alyss that, " I love you, I always have." and the hypnosis is broken. Alyss kills Keren by throwing an extremely potent acid created by Malcolm on his face. He has used that to try to free Alyss but Keren steps into the room before he can finish melting the bars. After that, the Skandians are able to take control of the castle. Will returns to his fief with his first mission as a full Ranger a success. At his log cabin he receives a letter from Alyss stating Will told her he loves her in a dream. Horace tells her that although it seems like a dream, it might not be. She writes in the letter, "I love you." Will leaves his log cabin again with Tug, to deliver his own letter to Alyss. 'The Outsiders' The Kings of Clonmel In Kings of Clonmel and Halt's Peril, Will, Halt and Horace are sent to Clonmel to prevent a cult called the Outsiders from taking power. The Outsiders offers to Extortion/protect a village from bandits that are actually part of the cult in exchange for gold. When the village has been stripped dry, the cult runs off to the next village. In this fashion, they take over five of the six sections of Hibernia. Halt, Will and Horace are sent to Clonmel, the last section, to try and prevent the cult from expanding into Araluen. Halt tries to persuade his twin brother, King Ferris, to use his troops to drive the cult out. In the end, the cult loses power in Clonmel, but the leader, Tennyson, runs away to try to reach the other five sections which he controls. Will, Halt and Horace leave Clonmel to chase after the false prophet. 'Halt's Peril' However, in the next books, Halt's Peril, the outsiders realized they are being chased, and the remaining two Genovesans set up an ambush. Will and Halt kill one of them, but the other escapes after shooting a poisonous crossbow bolt at Halt, scraping his arm. While Will and Horace are occupied trying to save Halt, Tennyson gathers new followers and preaches to them in caves. After curing Halt and killing the last Genovesan, Halt, Will, Horace, and Malcom come to caves and reveals to the villagers that they have been tricked. The bandits then attack Halt and Horace, with Malcom throwing smoke bombs at them. Will sees Tennyson escaping and throws all of the smoke bombs at Tennyson, making him lose his balance and fall to death to the rocks below. The four then escape the exploding cave, and go back to their respective homes. The Lost Stories Will appears in most of the stories from the eleventh book of the rangers apprentice series: Death of a Hero, The Roamers, Purple Prose, The Bridal Dance, The Wolf and And About Time Too. Purple Prose In Purple Prose, Will is trying to write a speech for Horace and Evanlyn as their wedding is approaching and he has been choosen to be the best man. Halt is skeptical about his ex-apprentice's speech due to it's excessivly flowery wording but doesn't want to offend Will and therefore refrains from saying what he feels about it. The two are asked to chase down Moondarkers, a group of people who light false beacons along a coast line to drive ships onto rocks so they can scavenge it for goods. Once they tracked the groups down Will is handed a block of dye which should be thrown in the false beacon to warn the ship off as it changes the fire's colour. Halt goes off to round up the local village's soldiers and Watch to fight off the Moondarkers. Though Hatl's part of the plan goes well enough Will runs into problems with an axeman and ends up having to throw his whole satchel into the fire. The fire turns a bright purple and the ship turns about. Later, it is discovered Will threw his speech accidentally into the fire along with the dye. Halt is secretly pleased at this a soon tactfully points out that the speech wasn't that brillant which Will whole-heartedly agrees to. 'History' Will is the orphan son to a sergeant named Daniel who died in the great war against Morgarath. Since Will's father had saved Halt's life by sacrificing his own, Halt personally made sure that Will was safe by delivering him to Redmont fief after Will's mother died when she protected Halt from the attack of Kord and Jarrell. At the age of 15, Will became an apprentice ranger to Halt, who at one point told his apprentice, "I made sure you were taken care of because of your father. I chose you for your abilities." It was after saying this that Halt gave Will the Bronze Oakleaf of a Ranger's Apprentice. After many missions and adventures with Halt, Will eventually earned the graduate Ranger's Silver Oakleaf and was put in charge of Seacliff Fief. However, later on in the series, he took over one half of Redmont Fief so that he and Halt could create the Special Task Force when required. Will has lived at Castle Redmont all his life. Along with his friends George, Alyss and Jenny, and his enemy turned best friend, Horace, he is a ward - an orphan brought up by the generosity of the Baron. All his life Will had dreamed of becoming a great knight, like the father he never knew until Halt tells him of his father's real story. At the Choosing Day, when wards of the castle turning fifteen are given the chance to become apprentices, he desperately hopes he is chosen for the Battleschool, where the kingdom's knights are trained. The problem is, Will might be wiry and agile, but he's small for his age. There's no way the Battlemaster will accept him as a warrior apprentice. Will decides to use what he is good at - sneaking around without being seen, and climbing trees and walls - to find out what the Ranger Halt has written about him on the piece of paper in the Baron's office. When he's caught in the act, Will decides to face up to his fate rather than lie to the Baron. It is his honest answer and courage that convinces Halt that he is right about Will - small size or not, he is the perfect candidate to become a Ranger's Apprentice. As Halt trains him, passing on the secret skills of the Rangers, Will begins to realize that speed, agility, and intelligence are every bit as important as physical size and muscle. He learns about loyalty, trust and friendship and he learns that courage can overcome even the greatest of enemies. Finally, as the Kingdom prepares to go to war, he learns about his own identity - who he is and what he is to become. Personality ﻿Generally speaking Will is a good-natured person, with a friendly attitude. However, he teases both Halt and Horace and gets annoyed by Horace while they are hiding under a cart in the sixth book. He becomes very sharp towards his best friend at that point due to nerves and frustration at the knight's inability to sit still and shut up. He and Halt have a realatioship which is father-son like. Will has an open-faced friendly look and attitude which makes people find it easy to talk with. He is a quick-thinker and a good strategist. Despite his young age he copes well with the responsibiltiy of being a Ranger. 'Skills' Will has many of the skills necessary to be a Ranger, and he is exceptionally skilled at the job. He is one of their best operatives, if a bit inexperienced, but his skills rival those of of even the most experienced and talented Rangers, such as Halt, his former master, Crowley, the Commandant of the Ranger Corps and Gilan, Halt's former Apprentice and a master in unseen movement. Notably, King Duncan has told Will that both Halt and Crowley believe that he will become one of the greatest of Rangers'. One skill he is lacking in is the ability to draw. In ''The Siege of Macindaw'', he is shown to understand perspective in drawing but cannot make a circle freehandedly. Archery: Will is an excellent archer, able to shoot several arrows in rapid succession. For the first four books Will carries a Recurve Bow, not being strong enough to pull the full weight of a Longbow. From the fifth book forward he has upgraded to the Longbow and puts it to effective use. Will is, as noted by Halt, a better shot than both Crowley and Gilan, two highly skilled archers and Rangers. Will rarely misses his mark, whether it be a unmoving stand or a far off horseman or even a striking snake, as in the seventh book where he saves Umar's grandson. it has been implied that Will is second only to Halt in the Corps. Hidden and Unseen Movement':'' Will is highly skilled in moving silently, even before he underwent his Ranger training. His small build and light feet make him a very good silent mover. Will, after some training and discipline, could stay completely still for a large period of time, rendering him almost completely unnoticeable. '''Saxe and Throwing Knife Skills: Will is very proficient with both the saxe knife and the smaller throwing knife. When he combines them together he can do something called the double knife defense. This was taught to him by Gilan (Halt's former apprentice) when they go to Celtica. During the battle with the Temujai Will defeated numerous Temujai with his knives, in spite of the fact that they weren't his preferred weapons. He later fought well against Keren using his knives in the Siege of Macindaw. Though skilled in knife fighting, it isn't his expertise, as he had to resort to underhand trickery to defeat Bacari. Speed: Will is very fast. He can outrun most people. This is shown all the way back from when he was a ward, when he had to escape Horace. Climbing: Will is a very good climber. When he was a ward he climbed up the cook’s tower and stole some pies which was the first time Halt considered him to be a possibility for a Ranger. Will later climbs the tower to Baron Arald's study. He has never been daunted by heights, shown when he climbs Castle Macindaw. His climbing skills have proven useful on many occasions. Mandola Playing: Will teaches himself to play the Mandola sometime during his apprenticeship, and uses it do great effect while disguised as a jongleur in the North. He continues to use a jongleur for a way of going undercover on a few other missions. (He particularly enjoys the song Graybeard Halt) ''Intelligence: ''Will is a highly intelligent person, possessing a crafty and devious mind. He is proficient at creating elaborate schemes to accomplish his goals, and is a skillfull tactician. Will also has a fast wit, often beating Horace in their many banters, and occasionally getting the best of Halt as well. HIs greatest mental attribute is his ability to think of a way out of a situation and to plan on an impulse, especially in dangerous circumstances. 'Relationships' (back left) and Horace (back right).]]Halt: Like everyone in Araluen Will found the ranger's strange and unnerving, and as a result was at first wary of Halt. Although skeptical about becoming his Apprentice Will accepts his offer, and enters into a mentor/student relationships which depens into more of a father/son realtionship. Because of Halt's gruff and grim attitude Will didn't always know how he was feeling, and at first mistook his raised eyebrow as a sign of displeasure. Halt in return was annoyed by Will's never-ending questions, and his hastiness during lessons. Nevertheless the two began to grow closer to each other, and Will develops an admiring respect for his teacher. Over time their relationship turns from mentor/student to something deeper, more a kin to a father and son. Will would often (unconsciously) act like his mentor, speaking in the same dry tone and constantly asking himself what Halt would do in certain situations. He, like many of the younger characters, sought Halt's approval, and he didn't care what anyone else thought. Halt in turn became very protective of Will, and was extremely proud of his accomplishments. In The Icebound Lands he insulted King Duncan (to whom he was very loyal) and accepted banishment so that he could go and rescue Will, who had been captured by the Skandians. However Halt could be a little overbearing at times to, such as when he began to smother and be overprotective of Will near the end of his student’s apprenticeship. Will had everlasting respect and faith in Halt, believing he could do nothing wrong and would always be the one standing in the end. When Lady Pauline was worried about Halt's late return in The Kings of Clonmel, Will himself wasn't and he believed that there wasn't anyone or anything that Halt couldn't handle. Will was also very loyal to his mentor, and would go to great length to protect him. In Halt's Peril he relentlessly hunted down and captured the Genovesan Assassin Bacari, who had poisoned Halt. When Bacari refused to give over the antidote Will flew into a rage and attacked, and probably would have killed the assassin if Horace and Malcolm hadn't restrained him. Horace: Horace was one of Will's wardmates. Before they were apprenticed, and for a little time afterward, Will and Horace had a deep feeling of enmity between them. Horace often bullied Will, and Will irritated Horace with his agility and wit. However, after their possibly fatal experience with a wild boar, Will befriends Horace and they have begin a deep bond of mutual assistance and friendship. Throughout Will's adventures, Horace accompanies him for most, such as in Nihon-Ja and the Siege of Macindaw. Horace cares deeply for his friend and often endangers his life for his friend, as in the Battle of Skandia. Alyss: 'Will has been childhood friends with Alyss since their time as wards and has developed deep bond with her. Alyss has always supported Will throughout his various adventures Throughout the later books, a romantic side to their relationship develops (encouraged by Horace). In the last book, Will proposes to her, albeit clumsly. In The Lost Stories they marry. '''Daniel: '''Will never knew his father, but what Halt told him of his father he liked. He is convinced that his father was a man to be proud of, courageous and loyal. Daniel after all, had died to save a man he never met. Though he never met his father, Will does his best to make his father proud. 'Trivia *Will is said to be short for his age but also very handsome. *He is also very humble and does not like to be the center of attention. Other Names: *Butterfly or Chocho (given by Shigeru) *Will Barton (while undercover) *Will No-name (insult by Horace) Category:Humans Category:Rangers Category:The Ruins of Gorlan characters Category:The Burning Bridge characters Category:The Icebound Land characters Category:The Battle for Skandia characters Category:The Sorcerer in the North characters Category:The Seige of Macindaw characters Category:Erak's Ransom characters Category:The Kings of Clonmel characters Category:Halt's Peril characters Category:Main Characters Category:Protagonists Category:The Emperor of Nihon-Ja Characters Category:The Lost Stories Characters Category:Araluens Category:Death of a Hero Characters Category:The Roamers Characters Category:Purple Prose Characters Category:The Bridal Dance Characters Category:The Wolf Characters Category:And About Time, Too... 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